"I'm scared, though."

"Of Asher or of Lilith or of both?" 

"Lilith." Tail-thumping. "I don't know what's going to happen when you talk to her."

"I don't know either." He snuggles Leo extra much. "But whatever happens, I have a unicorn and a vampire and a fairy in my corner." 

"Yeah." Low whine. "But what does she have in hers?"

"...yeah. I know." 

He's just. Not going to let go. 

That's good.

Like everything you're dreading, first period the next day comes much, much too quickly. 

Lilith is doing her homework immediately before class!

Welp. If he's gonna approach her.

"Hey. Do you need help with that?" 

"Sure!" she says cheerily.

Okay. Cool. He's not awesome at having his homework done but he sure can have opinions about Shakespeare and that's all you really need. 

"So what happened with Sonja?" he says, when they get to what seems like a natural pause point. 

"Oh, she was being really nasty to me, so we broke up."

"That sucks, I'm sorry," he says. "— she said something about princesses?" 

"Oh, she accused me of acting like a princess." Lilith waves a hand airily. "It's weird, I don't know why she does that."

...does he say anything does he say anything — 

"So you're definitely not a fairy princess?" 

She smiles at him without guile.

"What, is this a fantasy novel?"

He smiles back, just as guileless. "Seems like it sometimes." 

"It looks like class is going to start soon." Her smile is still guileless. "Promise me you'll help after school?"

"I try not to make promises I might not be able to follow through on and emergencies happen, but I can do my best to make it." 

She smiles. "I'm glad you take promises so seriously! So few people do."

"Sounds like it'd be frustrating," he says, and sits down in his seat. 

Leo makes a curious face.

He tries to convey we'll talk later via facial expression alone. 

Leo nods and returns to puzzling out why Shakespeare isn't happy that a bunch of people died nobly in defense of their houses.